


Hello, Michael

by mei (dspd)



Category: Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Family Feels
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:07:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22072258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dspd/pseuds/mei
Summary: Five days and nine hundred and thirty years after they say goodbye, Michael receives a message from Spock.(or, the story of how Michael still gets to be in Spock's life even if they live in different millenia)
Relationships: Amanda Grayson/Sarek, Christopher Pike & Spock, James T. Kirk & Spock, Leonard "Bones" McCoy/Spock, Michael Burnham & Spock
Comments: 10
Kudos: 97





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is what happens when I try to get shippy in the spones discord...slide right back into s'chn t'gai family feels. Post-Discover s2. Eventual spones b/c yes, still t'hy'la james & spock but they're platonic

Five days and nine hundred and thirty years after they say goodbye, Michael receives a message from Spock.

She hesitates before she hits play.

"Hello, Michael."

Spock's voice, deep and resonant, fills the room. He looks much the same as before, shoulders back, spines straight. His beard is gone, jawline clear against the dark blue of his science uniform, Starfleet insignia flashing here and there as he breathes. The room behind him is sparse, the corner of a single picture frame peeking in. It's the room he used when they stayed at the Vulcan Embassy in San Francisco.

"As you can see, your sacrifice was not in vain and we are safe. It has been 131 days since you jumped. There has been no sign of Control. All remaining AI technology has been decommissioned and the hologram program is being recalled for the same."

Michael smiles fiercely.

"Discovery, it's crew, and missions have been redacted from the Federation. The council ruled that, to prevent another occurrence, all official knowledge shall be removed. The technology and research into the spore drive functions within Discovery alone and, as such, will not be pursued at this time as Mr. Stamets is with you and his partner, Mr. Straal, is deceased."

The tears threaten to fall. She never thought she'd see him again. And yet here he is, providing comfort in that distant, Vulcan way.

"Sarek says it is illogical to create a message for someone who won't exist for almost 1,000 years as I cannot anticipate how technology will evolve."

His brow quirks and the corner of his mouth twitches into the tiny little not-smile she remembers from their childhood, before she pushed him away. Michael is unaccountably glad that he didn't listen.

"I admit the thought of you watching whenever you ended up is an illogical yet equally comforting notion..."

Michael stares at her brother's face as he continues, the words less important than the fact that he really had forgiven her. She watches hungrily, trying to memorize as much as possible. The way he shifts when telling a joke so dry any other Human would have missed it. The way he leans forward a bit to inform her of Amanda's distress over her absence. The way he cools to frigid as he speaks of Sarek's decision to never speak her name.

At the end he raises one hand, fingers spreading into their customary farewell.

"Live long and prosper, sister."

She raises her hand, mirroring his ta'al, and places it the same as the first time he showed her.

She can't bring herself to finish it.

She starts the video over instead.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going with a hc that Michael lands alone in the future and spends a year searching for Discovery before she finds them.

Michael has been alone for forty-two Standard days when the next message pings.

"Hello, Michael," he states. "It has been one standard year since the last message. I have returned to my station on the Enterprise under Captain Pike. Number One says I have been too quiet and trapped me in a turbolift until I sang with her. It was most exhilarating. You and I were still estranged the first time that happened. The turbolift broke my first day on board..."

Michael is unaccountably glad that he has someone like Number One to pole and prod him until loosens up. He needs someone to remind him of his Human side.

She even happier that he made another video. Humans aren't built to handle lonely.

This time, when he flashes a ta'al and says the parting words, she can reply.

She knows she'll see him again.

\---

The third, fourth, and fifth videos are light, containing everyday type news. Amanda and Sarek argued over getting a pet. Amanda got a cat. Sarek got a sehlat. The sehlat liked the cat more than him. The cat likes the sehlat more than her.

Captain Pike has won another commendation for his diplomacy. Number One received one for rescuing him when that diplomacy failed. Or didn't. Somehow, while Spock was onboard, searching for the captain's energy signature and Number One was kicking ass across the planet, Pike managed to secure a previously unheard of amount of dilithium for future ships. Michael isn't surprised. The man who led Discovery for that short time never knew when to quit.

Spock has aged four years in the last week between transmissions. He says they have a new Head Engineer. Mr. Montgomery Scott. His genius yet harebrained ideas remind her of Tilly and Stamets.

She misses them. She hopes they're safe, wherever they are.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mild and vague spoiler if you don't know about Pike

The next time Spock's signal comes through, she looks different. Her hair, once natural and long and fluffy, is now contained within box braids, as thick as her pinky, large enough to show the curve of each section of hair, yet small enough that they are seamless all together, a sleek mass of beauty. She thinks she looks nice this way, and the people she's found seem to like it as well.

She starts the video with a murmur.

"Hello, Michael."

The video is shaky and Spock...the words may be the same but he sounds different, upset. Michael is half out of her seat before she remembers that he's dead and gone and she can't do anything. Spock sets the camera down and sits in front of it. His posture is atrocious, shoulders slumped, elbows on knees, face flashing with emotion.

His gaze is fixed at some point above and behind the camera. 

"He knew, Michael. He knew what would happen. He saw it before you left and he carried it for nearly ten years. He knew and he chose it anyway."

Spock is up and pacing in and out of view, the swish of his uniform loud enough to be heard, gesturing. It's a wild motion for a Vulcan. Michael wishes she could reach out and calm him like she did when he was ten.

He abruptly stills, hands clenching and unclenching, breathe harsh in the sudden silence. Suddenly he's in the seat again, his face filling up the screen.

"Did you know Michael? Could you have stopped it? Like you managed to do with so much else?"

Like that he's up again, pacing, like a wild sehlat in a cage. She realizes her nails are biting into her palms.

"He confided in me. He told me about a dream while we sat in a bar and he warned me that it was going to happen. Soon. And I dismissed it."

Twenty minutes later she's pieced it together.

Spock has worn himself out. He's on the edge of his bed, head hanging. His shoulders tremble every one in a while, although she's not sure why. Perhaps rage still courses through him but she suspects it's sorrow. His voice is empty when he speaks again.

"I once said you were my balance, sister, and you said to reach for my opposite. I found it in Pike. He was a weight on the scale that matched my own and he is gone."

Another tremor works its way through his frame.

"I do not think I have the strength to find another."

The video cuts out.

Michael has never wished she was home more.

\---

There's a new message.

Michael is seized with the sudden fear that this one will be the last. That he'll lay Pike's fate at her feet and it'll be one life too many.

She can't reach down and hit the button to watch it. She can't speak past her lump in her throat to put it away.

The notification blinks at her.

She turns away from it, finds something else to do.

Anything will do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes I rushed through the in between years so we can get to TOS era. Soon Spock will be introducing her to James T. Kirk and Dr. Leonard McCoy.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have zero self control so have a 4th chapter in 24 hours
> 
> all typos are mine  
> I'm not even checking tbh  
> I need to get this fic out of me so I can function again

When Michael is finally ready to watch it she has someone on either side, holding her hand.

She's gone over every possible scenario in her head and one thing keeps boomeranging back at her. He lost his balance. Who will be on the screen when she finally plays it? Her grieving brother? An angry stranger, a coldly logical vulcan? Will he be worse? Or better? Will she have to watch him spiral into madness? Will her fear be correct? That this video is the last?

"Okay," Tilly says briskly, kindly, effortlessly pulling her from her thoughts. "Let's do this."

Her hands are clammy but Tilly and Saru don't let go. She doesn't deserve them. Michael stops that line of thought. Spock might not be the only one spirally, she thinks feeling hysteria creep up. Too much thinking. Too little sleep. Even their current fight isn't as scary as this.

She has to know what he says.

Body as rigid and stretched as the day she graduated, Michael starts the video.

"Hello, Michael"

Spock is once again immaculate. He looks all Vulcan, tall and cold and imposing and there isn't a hair out of place. His eyes are warm and sad.

"I apologize for my outburst," he says, carefully controlled.

Michael sags, relief seeping through her pores. He is, was okay. Tilly leans against her on one side. Saru leans on the other. It's good and warm and the weight on her chest is gone.

"It was illogical for me to place such a burden at your feet, considering the situation. I did not intend to send it." He glances to the side in that way he hasn't grown out of yet, visibly shuffling his thoughts. If he were still on Vulcan, that little Human tick would have disappeared. "Number One requested to be transferred back to the Academy. She leaves next week. She recommends me for her position. The new captain has said, unofficially, that it's mine, should I want it."

He is perplexed, brow furrowing the smallest amount, lips squeezing together infinitesimally. Had she not grown up with him, she would have never seen the signs.

Spock goes on to describe him, a highly decorated man, the youngest Starfleet captain ever at 32. James. T. Kirk. He's a walking contradiction. He's different from Pike, yet similar. They've never met yet Spock can see Pike's mannerisms. He's strict yet kind and in their first official mission he was affected by a drug which twisted his face in rage and heartbreak even as he collapsed, clawing at the floor. He's smart yet misses certain clues. He's short but his presence fills the room. He asks Spock for a chess game once a week.

The captain brought a friend when he transferred. A man named Dr. Leonard McCoy. The new Commanding Medical Officer, another man with with conflicting characteristics. This one was tall but often faded away. His personality was forceful and boisterous, his hands light and delicate. He could simultaneously bark out orders in a tone that would make the drill sergeant at the Academy cower between soft reassuring words for his patient. He upheld the strictest professional demeanor, yet the moment his shift was over, he was making a drink called a mint julep and starting impromptu parties or similar social gatherings in the rec room. He was sweetly ornery and would argue 'til his face blue if his morals demanded it.

Both of them were quickly loved by the crew. Spock found them mystifying, gratifying, both absurd and illogical and sensible and weak and strong as only Humans can be.

Michael likes the confusion in Spock's eyes as he struggles to quantify the qualities of his new colleagues. She wishes she could tease him. She misses the way they'd squabble, little fights of dominance between siblings.

She has family in Discovery, people who rest in her heart, make it bigger, balance it with the knowledge she carries in her head.

She hopes that the crew of the Enterprise becomes his family, too. The balance he said he could not bear to look for again.

This time, when Spock says his farewells, three hands return it.

Peace and long life, brother, she thinks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope Spock isn't too ooc in this. I'm trying to balance the Spock that refuses to talk about feelings or anything personal at all and the Spock that misses his sister enough to make a video journal for her in the future.

**Author's Note:**

> chapter 2 is in the works


End file.
